February 1986

On February 24th, 'Love comes quickly', which will remain one of their favourite songs, is released, reaching a disappointing #19 in the UK.

March 1986

On March 24th, their first LP 'Please' is released. "It's so people can go into the record shop and say can I have the Pet Shop Boys album, please?".

April 1986

'West End girls' reaches #1 in USA.

May 1986

On May 19th a new version of 'Opportunities' is released. "The point of that song is that the humour is black, it's like a joke. The impression is that the people in it are not going to make any money".

June 1986

The Pet Shop Boys announce, then cancel, a tour of Europe and America; the cost of using a theatre designer and playing fairly small venues proves prohibitive.

September 1986

On September 22nd, a re-recorded version of 'Suburbia', a song inspired by the Penelope Spheeris film of the same name about a group of disenchanted rebellious youths in suburban Los Angeles, is released. "It's about a riot happening in some decaying suburb. It's just the description of the riot happening and then the aftermath". On the B-side is the first version of 'Paninaro', named after an Italian youth cult and featuring a quote they both liked that Chris had said on a TV show: "I don't like country and western, I don't like rock music, I don't like rockabilly… I don't like much really, do I? But what I do like, I love passionately".

November 1986

On This Day

2001

2011

They work on two new tracks: 'Your Early Stuff' and 'The Out Crowd,' the latter of which will eventually become the song 'Hell.'

2012

They listen to orchestral arrangement demos for their next album, Elysium. The singers of Sonos also add support vocals to 'Ego Music' and 'Breathing Space.'

2014

Inspired by a speech on the subject of homophobia made at the beginning of the month by Irish drag artist Panti Bliss, Neil and Chris begin work on a new recording, 'Oppressive (The Best Gay Possible),' that sets excerpts from that speech to music.